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Created on Thursday, 02 October 2008 15:10

New Casino in Macau opened by Gambling Tycoon Stanley Ho.

Credit Crunch? What Credit Crunch? This phrase obviously doesn´t translate into Mandarin as gambling revenues continue to break records in Macau- the former Portuguese enclave in China, just across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong. As Macau further cements its place as the world´s casino capital, a new casino has just been opened by local casino magnate Stanley Ho.  Sofitel Macau is Ho´s latest venture, with which he hopes to win back market share and gambling dollars (and yuan) from the new arrivals from Las Vegas who have set up shop on the Cotai Strip. The new complex is one of the biggest casinos in the Special Administrative region with 270 thousand square feet of space for tables and machines, holding 150 gambling tables, 5 High Roller rooms and over three hundred slots games.

Unlike the new kids on the block, the new Casino Palace has been built in old downtown Macau, and is being run by the Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, Stanley Ho´s casino arm.

Macau casinos pulled in eye watering revenues close to ten billion US dollars up to August 2008, an increase of forty-four per cent year on year. Gambling revenues in 2007 comfortably beat those of the Las Vegas Strip.

And for Macau VIPs and High Stakes players- known in the industry as High Rollers or Whales, the Macau Sofitel includes the The Mansion - a five star wing just for their top clientele. Each  suite has its own swimming pool!

The Sofitel Group is part of the Accor Group, one of the planet's biggest hotel groups. US$400 million was spent on the construction of this megacomplex of hotel, casino, retail, restaurant and entertainment.